DOOM - The Ultimate Experiment
by steven.smiglicki
Summary: The marine has arrived on Earth to find it has been invaded by the mysterious alien force. The marine fights to survive and performs a daring rescue, while the UAC continue to operate from a new strategic location, engaging in their most dangerous experiments yet.
1. Chapter I

The Marine walked through a cramped dank corridor. Within the inner chamber he found the hideous Spidermind standing guard over a stone doorway. The monster was a grotesque mesh of flesh and steel, wires hung out from the back of its massive, brain-like head. It had several rows of jagged metal teeth and stood upon hydraulic metal legs with wide black hooves. The marine freshened the magazine of his RPG and charged in, rockets ablaze. _The uglier the better,_ he thought to himself. He fired a whole magazine before the alien could turn to face him, it then unloaded its chain-gun wildly. The marine jumped to his right as the space he was standing in erupted into a blur of screaming gunfire. He ducked behind a stone pillar as the Spidermind stomped closer, firing another flurry of bullets, throwing up dust and rocks from the columns. He moved from the pillar, firing quickly, and ran for cover behind the massive stone cube in the center of the area. The Spidermind dragged it's spray of fire towards the marine and tore up the carefully carved stone. The frenzy continued with roars of frustration from the beast. Fresh powder from disintegrating stone walls were kicked up from continued rocket and chain-gun fire, as well did the stomping of the giant alien. The marine fought on but was forced to resort to wild blind-fire as the fog of dust particles grew denser. Loud gunfire and explosions echoed and illuminated the chamber. The Spidermind was bleeding from cracks in its cranium and the mechanical legs whined from stress . The marine reached for his BFG and fired a green blob of swirling destruction into the center of the stomping monstrosity.

The Spidermind roared in defiance as the bolt of explosive energy impacted and violently detonated. The force sent chunks of brain, blood and circuitry flying away from it, the mass of the beast fell upon itself, bursting a hydraulic piston and sending a sizable piece of steel soaring toward the marine which he narrowly dodges. Fresh blood dripped from the walls, carved with lines of bullet holes. The marine walked toward the splattered corpse, his armor dripping with the Spidermind's entrails. He stepped into the mass of twitching gore and looked through the bloody mess, looking for the key to the gateway. He kicked around the remains and found a cube shaped object . He bent over and lifted it from the steaming guts. He wiped it off and turned it over in his hands, letting the flesh fall away. It was a cube with very sharp edges and jagged lines carved in its sides. He walked over to the doorway carrying the cube in both hands, the great stone doors were carved with circles inside circles. He held the cube up to an altar situated at the bottom of the staircase, leading to the stone doors. A force of some kind lifted the cube from his hands. It seemed to illuminate as it hung in the air and slowly turned hypnotically. It stopped and descended to sit upon the altar, the altar sank into the floor with the sound of grinding stone. The marine began walking up to the doorway as both doors slowly slid back, revealing a brightly shining portal of radiating waves. He climbed forward and the waves reached out to meet him. The hum of the portal gave him a shock to his mind and he was suddenly traveling through a massive energy tunnel.

Ribbons of energy swam past from all sides in a kaleidoscope of colours, interwoven through the passage. He rode for a few moments of increasing speed until a dark spot appeared in the distance ahead. It got closer and when he reached it, he lightly touched ground on the other side with some mild disorientation. It seemed like every other hell-hole he fought his way out of. There was an orange tinge in the sky and the ground was blood-red, trees were scorched and mass impalings were spread throughout the land and corpses were scattered around. The marine walked along and soon discovered a ruined city and reality sunk in. _This is Earth,_ suddenly he realized. Tall buildings spat tongues of fire into a sky swarming with lost souls. Some buildings had collapsed, many cars were tipped and burnt through. Possessed civilians mobbed the streets, stumbling into each other and screaming in a bizarre fashion. Hell knights stomped around the perimeter and above the madness and destruction stood a king-sized Cyber-demon, larger than any hell-spawn he'd seen before. As he gazed, bedazzled by the awful sight, the Cyber-demon turned it's head and locked its big hypnotizing eyes onto the marine's. That moment seemed to stretch on endlessly. Fear touched his heart and a fearsome intensity invaded his mind. The shock sent the marine into a vivid flashback, when the accident had just occurred, back on that damned science station of that misshapen moon of Mars, when he was still just an over-glorified security guard. In the halls of the transport hangar, staring down from a flight of stairs, he met the gaze of his closest companion in the station. His face was twisted into an image of pure hatred, his eyes bugging out and his mouth twitching in anticipation. As reality rushed back to him, he fought for control of his mind, a war was suddenly within him. He took several blows in his mind. He forced the chatter from his head and focused on his mental intruder. For a moment the marine seemed to lose consciousness, then drifted into a trance, his vision returned slowly. The fuzz faded from his sight and he saw the rooftops of many tall buildings, he could see into the rooms and the fires burning inside. Lost souls swooped close-by and swirled around him, screeching a song of demented torment. He experienced a flood of disorientation as he saw his hand reach the rooftop of a large building. The massive clawed hand grabbed the edge of the building and bent the structure downward, it made a wining sound of steel girders being stretched. Slowly the building began to tip and eventually fall, when he noticed a small green object below, in the path of the falling building. _Thats me,_ he realized he had been seeing through the Cyber-demons eyes. His mind was forcefully reeled back into his own body. He shook off the trance and jumped to his feet. The sound of the rapidly falling building filled his ears.

He found his bearings and ran like he never ran before. The failing building was raining down its parts from above, but the marine was on fire, running like a bat out of hell (literally). He barely cleared the zone of impact and kept running. The mass of the large building touched ground with a thunderous crash, sending up clouds of dust with a gust of strong wind. The shock wave passes over the marine but couldn't slow him down, fighting through hell made him more resilient. He skidded to a stop and leveled his BFG 9000 on the King Cyber-demon. He fired a large blob of green energy at the demon's head. The demon roared and fired a rocket at the energy ball and they both detonated on impact. The explosion filled the sky, its green glow radiated on the nearby buildings as it fizzled out. The marine suddenly realized that it would take more firepower to take this monster down than he has in his possession. Quickly he stashed the BFG, grabbed the plasma rifle and took off, away from the Cyber-demon. In his haste, he allowed smaller monsters to close in on him. Imps and possessed humans filled his peripheral vision and he began firing burning plasma at anything in his way. Imps hissed and threw fireballs at him, the possessed humans shouted their eccentric gibberish as his plasma rifle turned them to burnt chunks. He really thought the nightmare was over when he stepped into the portal, again, things just got worse.


	2. Chapter II

High above the carnage and destruction a man watches the marine's movements from a UAC moon base. That latest trip through a portal was picked up by the corporation's scanning equipment. A live feed of the marine's progress was displayed in a hovering holographic monitor. Dr. Kronos, lead researcher at Bravo-31 science labs of the moon colony, gestured one of the icons of his holo-terminal to signal his superior. A moment later, the voice channel opened. "Yes, doctor"? The voice over the channel was that of the lead administrator for the whole colony, Dr. Rupert Nexson. "The missing marine has reappeared, I'm sending you his coordinates now." said Kronos. Nexson took a moment to examine the evidence for himself. " I'm surprised to say the least" he said, "Who knows what hell he's been through in the time that passed since the accident, set the scanners to constantly monitor the subject. Thats all we can do right now" "Yes, sir" Kronos replied. He closed the channel and leaned back in his chair and watched the marine for another moment before he rose and headed to the observation post of their latest experiment.

The observation room had eight windows tinted black from the outside, three work tables each with a throne-like chair and a holo-terminal. The room was situated on the roof of a replica hangar bay of the Phobos science station. It has a full 360° of observation from its top center view. Dr. Kronos strode confidently into the room and his colleagues turned to hear what he would say. They had darkened features on their faces, shadows slid across their skin in an ominous, frightening fashion. "Status"? The head researcher asked. "Conditions are optimal, sir" hissed Dr. Campbell. "We have been authorized to test our systems on level seven portal activity. Activate containment fields and initiate". The other researcher, Dr. Mason acknowledged, his hands danced across the controls of his terminal in a well rehearsed movement. An alarm sounded a long note and red spinning warning lights illuminated the experimentation room. "Alarm. Gateway activity imminent. This is not a drill. Do not attempt to enter the testing area until experiment is neutralized. Portal activation in T-minus fifteen seconds" said the lab's computer with a cheerful female voice. "Gateway activation in five, four, three, two, one". A powerful vibration filled the halls of the quiet testing area, demonic whispering came over the speakers in the observation room. Ribbons of green light danced in the air of the testing chamber and drew out demonic symbols on the floor, too many to count. Suddenly, a brilliant flash of radiating energy flooded the area, the scientists were forced to shield their eyes as aliens of every classification materialized within the replica. They were roaring with fury and searching for anything to satisfy their rage. "The equipment is stable, sir", said Dr. Mason. "Sustain these conditions" replied Kronos. Soon the beasts turned on each other, starting to claw, bite and burn one another. A baron of hell was ripping its fellow hell-spawn to ribbons of bloody flesh. The Baron was soon taken down by a group of large-jawed demons, they feasted noisily on it's splattered remains. An arch-vile clasped it's hands together and shot them outward at the hoard of feasting demons and they exploded into fiery chunks of stinking flesh. Flying skull monsters caught the bits of meat as they flew through the air, and soon the skulls were fighting among themselves as well. Fireballs began to hit the windows of the observation room, the scientists watched impassively. More monsters took interest in the observation post. Skulls rammed into it over and over until they cracked open. After another moment of observation, Kronos said "Shut down portal emitters and sterilize the chamber". Dr. Campbell nodded and entered a few commands on his terminal. "Liquefaction of organic mass is now in progress" came the voice of the computer. Panels in the walls slid away revealing chutes from which poured green acid. The corrosive liquid splashed along the hooves of the aliens, they screamed in pain as they melted into the acid-bath. They struggled and roared frantically until they sank down to their waist and died. Flesh melted away instantly and left the bones floating at the surface, which soon began to dissolve and sink into the fleshy soup. The sizzling acid whirlpooled around the center of the area as it was carefully flushed away along with the boiled remains of the aliens. Robotic arms descended from the ceiling and hosed down the area to prepare for the next stage of testing.

Dr. Kronos turned to Mason "Fluctuations"? He asked. "The energy levels peaked at 1.6 above accepted levels, I am going to scrutinize the logs and keep you posted". "Hmmm, very good" replied Kronos "Send these results and any new data you come up with to administration, Dr. Nexson will be pleased by these results", "Yes, sir" said Mason. Kronos regarded Campbell "Monitor alpha, sierra, five" he said, Campbell acknowledged. The two researchers busied themselves at their terminals while Kronos left the lab and headed to his private office. The office was cramped but modern, it had a large window that showcased a view of the scorched Earth and the many craters of the moon. He sat down at the glass desk and regarded his terminal. He signaled the comm channel to administration, soon the administrator's voice filled the small office. "I was monitoring your experiment, Kronos. I can honestly say, it would have been hard to resist. The success of this experiment authorizes me to advance testing to stage five" said Nexson "What will become of the test subjects for the other projects"? Replied Kronos. "Corporal Revok has need of those individuals, they are already being transferred". "I understand". "See to it that you understand this, the next phase of testing is to start within the hour. Any objections"? "No, sir" replied Kronos. "Bring the experiment data to the meeting tomorrow, Nexson out". The channel closed and Kronos stabbed a finger at an icon on the holo-monitor, it spun while expanding to the full scope of the monitor. The program was titled 'Advanced space-marine program- Delta'. The program displayed several marines in stasis and interacting with a virtual simulation of the alien-occupied Phobos science station before the teleporter accident occurred. The marines vital and neural signs were cataloged digitally on the monitor. Kronos entered a few commands each followed by his personal authorization. The commands initiated a series of injections to prepare a subject for extraction from stasis.


	3. Chapter III

Within the simulation was the quiet halls of the science station. The researchers and security personnel went about their business, most were artificially intelligent software. The test subjects that were in stasis blended in with the A.I. security force flawlessly. A voice came over the public address system that ordered a member of Marine Security to the hangar bay. He handed over his station and took the monorail to his assigned post, Mars hung ominously in the sky. From the outside world, Kronos watched his movements. After a while he dimmed his terminal and left his office to return to the testing area. As Kronos entered the lab, Dr. Mason looked over at him. "Sterilization process is complete, sir", he said. "We have been authorized to begin level five testing, check your terminals for instruction", commanded Kronos.

On the other side of the base another researcher, Dr. White studied the recently possessed humans. The specimens were caged inside a small, reinforced cell that was situated at a secluded side of the lab. The doctor was busy with a gruesome surgery of a still live former human. It was strapped to an operating table with its flesh splayed open and pinned. The doctor used a long instrument to blast glowing radiation on the apparent mutations. The subject screamed wildly as it fought against the restraints. The doctor eventually aborted the subject by throwing it into a disposal unit and quietly went about writing his report. He walked over to the cell and activated a terminal. The former humans were strapped in stray jackets and secured by metal arms fastened to the back wall. Dr. White smiled pleasantly as one of the subjects was shoved into an adjacent chamber to be prepped for examination. The possessed human was sterilized and fitted onto a cart, wearing a reflective straitjacket. Another specimen was neatly lifted into the the cell, the mechanical arms shifted along their track to accept another in the chain. The doctor wheeled the former human to a half-cylindrical concave cavity and pushed the subject inside. Mechanical arms fitted him with neural implants, to partially control its brain functions during the procedure. The subjects were known to be immune to all attempts to render them unconscious. Marine Security monitored most of the experiments that occurred on the colony from bulky cameras placed in the corners of the labs. Most of the time when an accident occurs, the marines can contain the threat with conventional UAC weaponry and bombard the area with DESO-radiation to stop the portals from appearing, in the few times when something goes wrong, the Administration will self-destruct the entire facility from the comfort of their headquarters.

Elsewhere a Facility housed the only teleporter on site. Master Corporal Revok watched over a steady deployment of the colony's dwindling population through it, in a last ditch effort to claim ground in their inter-dimensional war. Five man teams were sent through at a time, it was all the UAC technology could handle. They were wearing environment suits and wielding plasma rifles and BFGs. They approached the massive energy coils of the teleporter and the hardware came to life with a mighty flash of pulsating light. The "volunteers" were swallowed up by the magnificent light. The campaign was a lost cause, but the UAC officials always had ways of drumming up the last of the human race for xeno-missions.

Back in Kronos' lab they were ready to start the next round of tests. Kronos and the other scientists were at their terminals, he entered the final command in the sequence. A set of panels, flush with the floor, slid apart and a coffin-sized capsule rose up from beneath. Thick hoses snapped off it as it opened and vented steam revealing the space-marine. He was outfitted in standard, white mega-armor with reflective patches. He was suspended as the capsule descended into the floor, it deposited him into the room and disappeared under the closing floor panels. The monorail in the simulation arrived at its station and the marine approached the large air-lock door of the hangar bay, he scanned the panel with the ID chip in his armor. 'Klang-Wrrrrrr', The door loudly slid upward and the marine stepped inside. "Bring him out, Doctor" Kronos said to Campbell. Dr Campbell began a complicated cybernetic procedure to lower the intensity of the sensory input from the simulated environment and matched it with the perspective from the marine in the room while monitoring his brain-wave patterns for signs of pre-cognition. The marine made his transition without any notice at all. Kronos was monitoring Campbell's terminal, "Another flawless ejection, Doctor." he said. Campbell, clearly exerted from the task, bowed minutely in acknowledgment.

The hangar bay was perfectly silent. A set of two wide windows had a view of an adjoining part of the building as well as rocks, craters and Mars, high in the sky. There were four central columns in the central area, to the left was a staircase leading to a viewing tower, flanked by two columns, supporting the wired conduits for electronic commands, the interconnected system was spread through the many structures of the science station. In front of him was a short hall, leading to the door to the aerospace control center. Beyond that was a path stretching over hazard pits of chemical waste, which led to a non-functional airlock door to the shuttles. Just to his side was a glass security locker containing a plasma rifle and power-cell magazines. Kronos stood silently, arms at his back, watching the puzzled marine walk about the replica. He turned to Mason, his face was that of stone, his glasses brightly reflected the light of the room. "Open a level two, doctor" he commanded. "Yessss, sir" Mason hissed. He dramatically manipulated his terminal, then swung his chair around and stood to see the experiment commence. The marine was walking slowly toward the security cabinet. His ears perked up as a sudden vibration filled the room, strange whispering followed. "Whats going on"? He shouts, then before his eyes ribbons of energy danced in the air above the glowing symbol of pentagrams.

A green flash shot throughout the room. He was gripped in fear as Imps and large jawed demons appeared in all corners of the area, hissing and snarling in anger. The aliens looked upon him and attacked. The Imps threw their fireballs, he ran and dove behind a column. He drew his pistol and fired on the monstrous aliens. His hands were trembling as he emptied the magazine, the Imps dodged some of the shots, the ones that were hit continued to attack, barely fazed. He frowned and looked down at his impotent firearm, then looked over at the security locker. Monsters were that way, too. He marched toward it, shooting furiously. He heard a gruesome sound, he turned his head and saw a hell knight stomping closer, fury burned in its eyes. The Knight stopped and clawed at the air, the marine felt his mind being touched. In the secure observation room, an alert notification came from Dr. Campbell's terminal, the subjects brain-scans were showing disturbing signs. "Subject exhibiting initial signs of neural intrusion" he said, unenthusiastically. The marine stopped at the locker, turned to fire point blank into two Imps, splattering brains and blood all over himself and the walls. He held his ID chip to the sensor plate and the locker slid open, he frantically grabbed for the the rifle, the armors magnetic belt-pack handled the task of stocking the magazines. He swung around and fired blobs of plasma at the nearby Imps, a demon flanked him and closed it's jaws on his left arm, the marine blasted its head to ashes. The marine went running across the room, the hell Knight made another psychic attack against the marine, groping the air in a seductive, yet frightening fashion as it roared deeply. The marine looked over at it as he went to level his eyes on the sights of the rifle. The hell Knight's hypnotizing gestures captivated the marine. His head jerked back and forth, then fell to one knee, shaking. Campbell's terminal registered the symptoms of alien possession, the Doctor frowned inwardly as he looked down at the data. He said nothing as he continued to watch with his colleagues. There was no need stating the obvious, the disturbing infliction was easily recognizable. The Imps and Demons continued to appear from green portals, they attacked the recently possessed human. It weakly handled the plasma rifle and fired at the hoards, striking the hell Knight, who became agitated. The former human turned a few more demons to smoking chunks before the stomping hell knight approached it and grabbed it by the back of its head. The former human's head cracked in the alien's grip. It screamed in a high pitch. The hell knight tore off its head, then an arm and a leg. They broke off with sickening, wet-sounding snaps, sending blood splashing into the air, painting the room. The hell knight roared in defiance, locking it's eyes with those of the UAC researchers. It threw the mangled torso of the test subject at the observation room windows. The researchers were unmoved as they watched the experiment reach its bloody conclusion. The torso slid slowly down the hydrophobic glass, fell to the floor and was noisily eaten by the demons below. The lead researcher stood motionless watching the slaughter, "Sterilize", he said as he continued to watch.


	4. Chapter IV

Dr. White and a colleague walked down a corridor, the sound of their footfalls echoed off the walls. "Skip simulations when you recalibrate the plasma stream, theres a 3.1 variance in T-wave frequency, and when you get back to your lab, make sure you review the new drivers for the containment field generators", "I understand" said White as he stared down at his data sheet. "I know that the proton-flux array has been functioning exceptionally, but theres a few more parameters we need you to adhere to, I'll be waiting for your report", said White's superior as he turned a corner and walked away. White continued along to a set of doors with an input panel in the wall, he held his ID card to the panel and the doors slid open. The lab was a large room dominated by a huge arrangement of black metal plating. After he consulted his terminal for a while, he activated a command that made the metal plating move apart, revealing an intricate array of sensors with an artifact in the center, the soul-sphere. The scanning equipment came to life and radiated a dull purple energy and made a pulsating, humming sound. The sphere was blue with swirling white energy that streaked across its surface, occasionally a ghostly face would emerge from the churning orb. It's something thought to have been left over from the lost civilization on Mars, found in the lower chambers of a stone temple on the surface of the red planet. The awesome power of the scanning array had yet to reveal its ancient purpose, but progress was being made. The scanning radiation shut down and the terminal displayed the results of the scan. Dr. White sighed as he looked at the perplexing data, he still had no idea how the artifact was made, or why and the data he received seemed more convoluted each time he tried a different scanning technique. He had been brought in on the project after several other researches had the same issues. He uploaded the data to the projects computer files and then wrote and sent his report to administration. They wont be impressed with it, but it was thorough enough to save him from any serious hot water. He placed the soul sphere back in its shielded containment and headed back to his lab.

He ran into his colleague once again along his way "Any luck with the artifact"? "I don't think so, I'm going to send a specialist to realign the array again" said White. "Don't worry, we're going to crack this one soon enough", "I haven't run out of ideas yet, sir" said White "Good man, I'll talk to you again after the next cycle". They parted ways and White returned to his lab. His lab was quiet, he walked over to the containment cell. He touched a panel and examined a readout of the cells energy field emitters, he made a minute adjustment to the emitters and then opened another program. The former humans shook their heads wildly as they fought against their bonds, "Mortal"! They cried at him, despite the nature of one-way mirrored glass. White did his best to ignore their taunts. "I smell fear..." they said in a hollow tone, their pupils were pure red and as large as could be. The doctor guided a mechanical arm that was fitted with several sterilized syringes. He extracted blood samples from each of the subjects, their constant thrashing always made the process more messy than necessary. He carefully guided the syringes into their arms and extracted the sample. "You die", they thrashed in increasing intensity, fiercely they tore at the straitjackets, the metal arms holding them in place rocked harmlessly. Dr. White enjoyed a quiet laugh at their expense. The Doctor activated a taser in the metal arms holding the former humans, he tried to get them under control, but only served to further agitate them. The straitjackets tore loose one at a time in great rips, they then grabbed the mechanical arms attached to collars around their necks. "Die"! It roared, as it tore the mechanical arm from its fixture. The enraged former humans were soon both free and beating on the window with their fists, while screaming and drooling. They balled their fists, lifted their heads and roared defiantly. Dr. White was still chuckling at them while he regarded a data sheet, he stopped laughing when he saw the green ribbons of dancing energy inside the cell. He hit a near-by emergency button. "Emergency, containment field failure" said the station computer as a green flash shot out, blinding the researcher. He stumbled backward, shielding his eyes with his arm as large-jawed demons appeared inside the cell. They paced the cell briefly, then more monsters teleported into the cramped room. The force of rapidly opening portals tore the demons to dripping, bloody pieces, splattering the walls and briefly sloshed against the hydrophobic glass. Chaos soon ensued within the cell, new portals opening each second and spewed blood and limbs non-stop. The chaos grew and the structure began to fail. The glow of rapidly appearing portals and blood surged in rising intensity, the structure began to resemble an inflating balloon. Just before it reached its breaking point, a Hell Baron appeared inside and caused the failing structure to burst violently. Dr. White was, by this time, shielded inside a reinforced capsule when the cell exploded sending metal, and body parts flying into the air. The portals continued to open sporadically as the baron and imps attacked the capsule. In the hallway beyond, a team of space-marines were running to the laboratory. They stopped at the secured doors and the squad leader tapped a near-by security panel, he punched in a couple quick commands to begin sterilization procedures. "Procedure initiated... Conditional alarm, sterilization reservoir is currently 25% below required level for full cycle" came the voice of the station computer. A holo-terminal displayed the interior of the lab, the aliens roared frantically as they sank into the acid that was being flooded into the room. More portals continued to open, while many Cacodemons and lost souls floated in the air, safe from the pools of acid. The squad leader activated a pair of turrets in the lab, they sprang to life and began firing at the airborne monsters. He waited until the turrets began taking damage and ordered his men to take aim at the laboratory's doors. He opened the doors, "Fire", he cried and the marines sprayed the doorway with glowing plasma, the Cacodemons were focused on the turrets and were taken by surprise, they fell to the ground with half of its bloated body burned off, others had holes burned right through them. The Lost souls and Cacodemon began crowding the small doorway. The squad leader's BFG 9000 was already charging when he ordered the team to hold fire, half a second after they stopped, the BFG round traveled straight through the door and exploded against an alien in the middle of the room. "Roll" he ordered, and barrels of explosive chemicals were rolled down the hall, the leader held the doors open as they rolled through. "Flood team! Go!" he called. A group of workers in environment suits stormed into the lab and began flooding the area with DESO-radiation.


	5. Chapter V

The marine was fighting his way across a city block, Imps and hell knights attacked from the center of a three-way intersection, Pain elementals and Cacodemons floated above. He confidently marched towards them, neatly dodging their projectile attacks. _Ka-Boom. _The imp's spiked arm was blown off at the elbow, after dodging a blob of plasma he fired his twin barreled shotgun into the face of one of the hell knights, it went down with a thump. The lost souls screeched toward him and the Cacodemons descended, he ducked as they swooped in and he shattered several with a single shot from the shotgun. The marine turned and kicked another imp in the chest, sending it flying. The furious hell knights roared and stomped toward him, he continued firing, the bloated Cacodemons were sent reeling under the force of the marines attack. He popped the cap on an HE grenade and ran to the other side of the block. He tossed the grenade in a wide arc toward the remaining hell knights. They roared and tried to swat the bomb away, but was instantly consumed in a large implosion of unstable plasma. He made his way to safety when a call came over his radio unit. The frantic call came from a Commander Naomi Thompson, she was leading a group of survivors. They found an ultra frequency transmitter in an abandoned military vehicle, from which they managed the call. They were in need of evacuation, the marine explained that he was close by a spaceport terminal. Thompson asked him to take her high security command codes and use them to access the largest ship he could find there. He agreed to make the rescue.

The marine made his way to a service station where he found an unlocked mack-truck with the keys on the seat, a couple of the power chargers were still working. He charged the plasma cells. A couple of former humans stumbled out of the station's store and staggered weakly toward the marine. He casually shot one and ignored the other, he hung up the nozzle and walked over to the cabin of the truck. The former human, following behind, slammed into the trucks door just as the marine shut it and fell over as the truck rolled away. It tried to get up but was struck by the trucks tire, its head was crushed under the wheel. He sped off in the truck toward the spaceport, crushing aliens as he went.

Kronos was in his office reading the report from the recent accident. Despite his eccentric impulses, he respected Dr. White and hoped the situation would resolve itself. The test chamber was still being sterilized from the last experiment. He continued to read the stream of reports from across the colony, the usual stuff like advancements to the plasma cells, bio-force energy units and the slow accumulation of information about the aliens and the ancient Mars Civilization. He was reading an article about a recently discovered artifact, though not as impressive as the relics that have already found, it was still endlessly fascinating. The computer voice interrupted, "Test chamber alpha is ready to resume testing, doctor". He touched the holographic symbol for program Charlie and fed new orders into the chain of command within the simulation. The test subject was lounging in the stations cafeteria, enjoying a simulated soda. The stations P.A. System issued the orders for the marine to report to the hangar bay. He tossed out the soda can and made his way to the monorail. The Doctor watched as he boarded the train and then left the office. He traveled the spotless hallway and stepped into the room. "Status"? Kronos asked. "Simulation will terminate in approximately one hundred and seventy-six seconds, subject's condition is well within testing parameters". Dr Campbell said. Dr. Mason was busy monitoring the containment field generators for the tiniest chink in it's armor, despite recent accidents, Kronos trusted Mason. The floor panels parted and another capsule ascended, it opened revealing a space marine in the same white reflective armor. The hardware detached from the test subject and slipped under the floor, "Thirty seconds, sir". The lead researcher watched Dr. Campbell's terminal from behind him. "Fifteen... ten seconds... three, two, one". The marine promptly came to life and began casually walking through the replica. "Another excellent transfer, Doctor" said Kronos dryly, Campbell, smiling, nodded his thanks. Kronos stood with a straight posture as he stared down at the test subject. "Mason, localize level two portal traffic" Mason turned and smiled devilishly as he acknowledged, punching in the sequence without looking at his terminal. The test subject was much like the one previously experimented on, just considered a bit more muscular.

The ribbons of energy danced through the air, the symbols drew themselves on the floor and whispering was heard before several Imps teleported into the room. Swiftly, the marine drew his pistol and began firing into their skulls. He stepped to the right dropping one demon at a time with precise aim. The marine inched toward the security locker, demons continued to appear from thin air. He roundhouse kicked a large-jawed demon and it collapsed to the floor. Still firing, he passed his suits ID chip over the lockers scanning pad; The locker recognized his ID and swiftly opened with a quiet _whoosh. _The pistol fell to the ground, magazine emptied, as he grabbed the plasma rifle. He shot a diagonal line of plasma into the bodies of close-by Imps, he fired again and then rolled for cover, more monsters appeared from the green portals. He held the trigger and let a flood of plasma burn them to a crisp. Smoke was building within the replica. A hell knight appeared and roared fiercely, the marine shot its big head to ashes. More Imps appeared, tossing fireballs. Another hell knight appeared and got caught in the cross-fire of Imp fireballs. The enraged hell knight threw green energy at the imps, one of them caught the green energy in the chest, it grotesquely melted on impact. The marine was blasting monsters from the rapidly opening portals, the hell knight grabbed a large-jawed demon and tore it's head off and threw it at the marine, he shot it out of the air. "Decrease rate of fire by twenty-five percent" said Kronos. The marine was behind a column of cables, reloading the rifle. He popped out to make a quick attack, the rifle sputtered slower fire "What the..."? He cried. He continued burning Imps and Demons, but they drew closer with the slight advantage. The marine delivered another kick to an Imp, it fell to the ground as he continued firing plasma in wide arcs. Smoke fogged up the hangar from the demons plasma-burnt flesh. "Decrease space by thirty percent", ordered Kronos. Mason nodded and entered the command into his terminal. Within the replica hangar, steel sheets slammed into the floor from the ceiling, blocking off portions of the area. "Holy Jesus", the marine cried. "Level four" commanded Kronos. The portals began opening with more frequency, Cacodemons suddenly appeared, spitting balls of lightning. As the marine jumped out of the way, the aliens inched closer. He emptied the rest of the rifles magazine, he burnt the Cacodemon to smoking chunks, then spun wildly and punched an Imp and round housed a demon. He went to change his magazine, but a demon sank it's teeth into the marine's upper left arm and tore it off. The demon gnawed the detached member savagely. The marine screamed, the shock forced him to squeeze the trigger, sending streams of plasma harmlessly into the walls. His wound sprayed blood, painting the hangar in red. A fireball hit him in the visor. Between the smoke from the burnt bodies and the soot covering his visor, he was blind. A Cacodemon hovered silently from behind and bit off the marine's head. He spurted blood as he sank to his knees and collapsed, a big red puddle of blood spilled onto the floor. The aliens feasted on his disgraced remains. The gruesome noises echoed through the replica.


	6. Chapter VI

On the surface of Earth, the marine approaches the spaceport. Commander Thompson kept frequent tabs on the marines progress. The building was very large, about the size of its predecessor: the airport. The marine could make out Cacodemons and hell knights around the perimeter. He was hoping the aliens would ignore this building, he wondered if they were somehow aware of the plan. _Well, this is hardly the first installation I've had to clear out_, he thought to himself. He parked the truck a safe distance from the spaceport and proceeds on foot. The monsters soon notice the approaching marine and fill the air with roars of fury. Soon, more monsters answered the call of the roaring hell knights. Cacodemons and lost souls came through the huge holes blasted into the face of the building, then the front doors flew apart, demons and former humans began charging toward him. He considered his options for a moment and then gripped his BFG 9000 and charged the chamber. He released the trigger at the last moment, sending the blob of bio-force energy sailing through the air. It traveled past the hell knight and Cacodemon and detonated against the demons not far behind them. The explosion engulfed the central position of the attacking aliens, most of the monsters were wiped out. Residue from the exploding energy hung in the air, the marine loved the smell of death from bio-force energy. He approached the doors to the spaceport, gripping his plasma rifle. He entered the building, looking all around, it was mostly empty, save for a few Imps hiding about. They were soon cooked with burning plasma. The place was very dark, a damaged light fixture flickered quickly. Revolting, demonic growths snaked around the area. Slowly he walked toward the front desk to examine the computer, a corpse was lying face down behind the desk. It twitched and moved its arms to get up, making an unworldly growl. The marine stopped it with a single shot from his pistol. He looked up at the many terminals on the counter, they all blinked the same message "Network Down", it looks like he would have to find out the condition of the space craft by examining them himself. Looking around, he found a darkened map against a column, the hangar for the spaceport was two buildings away, the installation's security room was along the way, he would have to stop in, his supply of energy cells were getting light. He traveled a path to his right, it led to a long square hallway, bathed in darkness. Angry growls could be heard in the corridors beyond. The marine reached for his shotgun and flicked the switch of the flashlight he had strapped to the barrel. Light stretched far into the hallway, different passages and emergency lockers lined the passage. Sparks would suddenly fall from the ceiling, accompanied by the sound of popping electricity. Slowly, he stepped into the darkness towards the distant growls.

The breathing got louder the further he traveled. As he turned a corner his flashlight fell upon the twisted features of a former human, its eyes were lit like a set of car headlights. "Mortal", it shrieked. _Boom_, the marine fired both barrels into the its face. Its exploding skull splattered against the walls, the former human stood on shaking legs for a moment, raining blood from its neck before falling over. He soon heard the sound of footfalls approaching, more former humans were closing in on him. Two former members of spaceport security with burning red eyes came dashing from around the corner, aiming their pistols. "You will not escape", one shouts. He fired both barrels at the former security personnel, they were sent flying backwards as their chests threw blood and bone into the air. The marine confiscated their ID-badges, typically, any armory would be locked. The marine continued along the passage, further ahead was the security office. It consisted of a door set in the wall and a wide window directly to its right. Peering through the darkened window revealed very little, chairs and tables blocked up the view. The doors were powered down, just like everything else on the installation, he broke a glass panel and pulled a short lever for the manual door release and immediately regretted it. When the door slid open, a roaring hell knight stood before him. He staggered back in shock of having the alien appear right before him. He unloaded another twin barreled attack, the beast staggered briefly. The marine moves and dodges the clawed attack of the newly liberated alien, it stomped from the room and tossed a ball of plasma. The marine jumped out of its way, the plasma burned through a posted safety notice fixed to the wall. He reloaded and fired both barrels again as the hell knight stomped out of the room. Blood sprayed from it's chest, unwavered, it continued its advance. It slashed at the marine with its clawed hands, he jumped back, narrowly dodging the attack. He quickly reloaded and fired again into its massive, horned head; he struck his target, some of the bullets tore flesh, some was deflected off its chiseled face. The marine paced back a couple meters, dodging another plasma ball, then another, he fired again. The double shot took off one of its devilish horns, it was consumed in anger, throwing more blobs of energy. The marine stepped around a blob, fired again then quickly stepped around another. The left-hemisphere of the alien's skull fragmented, pieces of bone and brain were blown off. The monster groaned and fell, loudly to the floor. The marine stood over the corpse, it lay dead, twitching, he steps around the steaming carcass and walks into the security office. It seemed that the hell knight was trying to break out, the terminals were smashed, the work table was warped, but the weapons locker was still intact. Using one of the ID badges, he opened the locker and restocked his energy cells, he stashed his shotgun in favor of burning plasma. _Whoever the hell invented plasma technology seven years ago was a saint,_ he thought to himself, _The only thing the UAC ever did right. _He checked a partially smashed map of the spaceport then continued to his objective.

Silence. His footsteps echoed off the walls of the corridor. Approaching a turn in the hall ahead, he heard the sound of munching and growling. He walked toward the sound and the blinding flood of the flashlight revealed a small group of demons feasting on human remains, his plasma rifle turned them to smoldering pile of charred meat. Just further ahead was the passage that leads to the hangar, some sort of movement could be heard in the dark path ahead. He stepped into the hallway and walked a few meters, his nerves were peaked. The sound of unintelligible whispering crawled through his mind, his eyes went wide as ribbons of green energy swirled before them. Demonic energy glowed within the symbols of intricate pentagrams, then the green flash flooded the area. Portals were ripping open.


	7. Chapter VII

A horde of Imps suddenly appeared, poised to strike. The marine's trained eyes knew the best moment to fire, plasma impacted the imps as soon as they appeared, several were laid to waste in the first moments. More portals opened around him, his sight was blinded by more green energy. Hissing imps threw fireballs and clawed at him. He fired wildly, dodging the projectiles. Another wave appeared and closed in on the marine, he flooded the hall with more plasma, one by one, the imps fell to blackened pieces. The pentagrams faded and silence fell over the area, save for the sound of sizzling, burned meat. Cautiously, he continued down the passage, he quickened his pace when the security door to the hangar bay became visible. He was just a few feet from the door when he heard a sickening snarl and a rush of footfalls. He swung his flashlight around but saw nothing. The sounds got closer, _Spectors, _he finally realized. He fired plasma and heard the sound of it burning flesh, the barely visible monsters charged at him, he dropped two more beasts. More charged in from behind those that had fallen but they, too, were consumed in the scorching burn of plasma. The hall became quiet, he approached the doors controls. He scanned the confiscated security badge and accessed the manual door release. The doors clanked and then slowly opened horizontally. The broken PA system buzzed awkwardly about some protocol or something. The beam of his flashlight stretched deeply into the hangar bay, revealing silent darkness. The marine steps inside. "Hey you ugly freaks, come and get it"! The marine shouts, his voice reverberated throughout the hangar. Silence returned his call. Since his flashlight barely lit the whole area, he lit flares and tossed them about as he walked. The hangar was soon bathed in a red glow that revealed the huge ships. The hangar was about the size of a retro sports stadium of the late twentieth and twenty-first century. It was a large dome that retracted apart, down the middle. It was currently closed, no doubt a futile defense against the aliens. There was the exit behind him and two others in the other sides of the hangar and a control tower with stairs around it in the central area. Two rows of computer terminals flanked the sides of the tower, the terminals glowed with the words "System Failure". As he began searching the docked ships, he heard a familiar hissing sound. He turned to the sound and beheld the sight of several Cacodemons descending from the ceiling. He gripped his plasma rifle and shoots a long burst into the air, the energy burned their flesh. More Cacodemons appeared from behind larger ships. In a mechanical fashion, the marine bursts his shots at the bloated aliens and carefully dodges their balls of hazardous electricity. _Clumsy freaks_ inflected the marine, he'd chewed through hundreds of these aliens in the past week and figured out their typical attack patterns. One by one they fell into a smoking pile of charred remains. Another attacked and got a massive hole burned straight through it. It splattered to the floor, spewing its organs. He burnt through two more, reloaded and fired another set of long bursts. Their numbers were thinning when suddenly, whispering could be heard and spirals of green glowing light appeared throughout the area. More monsters are about to appear! He continued firing, his shots impacted the bodies of the aliens as they exited the portals, more burnt heaps fell to the ground. He spun around saw that more monsters had appeared, and there were a lot of them. Large-jawed demons were charging toward him. The last time he saw this many demons in the same place was in the badly infected halls of the cybernetics lab on Phobos, or at least he thought it was the cybernetics lab. The lab had been partially transported into the hellish dimension and meshed with the demonic growth that resides there. He leveled his plasma rifle and fired on the rapidly approaching horde. The demons soon turned to burnt chunks and ash. He spun around, another horde was coming at him. He squeezed the trigger and sprayed the hot plasma in a wide sweep, more demons went down in smoldering chunks. Turning again, he didn't even wait to see what was there before firing. Smoke rose up from the charred demon corpses. He dashed behind the block of terminals and reloaded. He peeked up from his cover and took a few pot shots at the Cacodemons. Balls of flying fire and power slammed against the terminal. He pulled out his shotgun and fired both shells at a time at the aliens. He leaped over the terminal and grabbed a demon by the head and tore it off, he then kicked another into the wall of the tower, winded, it fell to the floor. More portals opened. He fired again and then tore the flesh from another, the floor was slick with red blood. He ran to the other side of the area and fired again, he heard the sound of a demon's death cry. He dodged behind another terminal and reloaded, he fired a few times on a horde of aliens. They died out before they hit the ground. More portals opened, he was suddenly surrounded. He was moments from becoming demon lunch, he dropped the shotgun and reached for the chainsaw. It was a small package that unfolds with the flick of a wrist, it roars to life with the same action. The hungry sounds of snarling demons came from all sides, he focused his mind and held the chainsaw out before him. The demons charged in, a large pair of jaws bit down on the moving blade. The saw split the demon's jaws, he flicked the saw out and the demon died with blood fountaining from its head. He swung the blade around and sliced through two more, strange organs fell to the floor and blood splattered against his visor. A horde charged from the right, He kicked a fallen barrel and it rolled toward them, he drew his pistol and fired upon the barrel, bloody body parts flew through the air. He holstered his pistol with a professionals flourish and heaved the blade toward more growling sounds. He stopped and looked around, a horde of at least four dozen demons suddenly spilled around the corner of the tower. He turned the corner while gripping an HE grenade, popped the cap, tossed it around the corner, then ran up the flight of stairs. A loud _boom_ sent blood and parts flying past. The center of the explosion was a mess with pools of blood, organs and severed members drifting along. He reached the first landing and a Cacodemon hung in the air, along the guard-rails, hardly a meter away. The marine marched toward the alien and thrust the chainsaw through its single eye and pushed upward, sending up a shower of blue coloured brain and blood. He folded up the chainsaw and the purring engine putted into silence. The area was almost cleared, some demons and Caco's remained. The marine set the sight of the rocket launcher onto one of the bloated freaks when he heard the grinding sound of the large Northern door opening.

Bright white light flooded through the door, two tall bodies emerged and made a horrible sound as they threw up their arms in an intense gesture, fire glowed in the space between their hands. It threw its hands forward and huge tongues of fire sailed toward the marine. The fire shot toward him and he dove out of its path, the space he was standing in was engulfed. The creatures were Arch-vile, a humanoid demon of great strength and pyrokinetic psychic attacks. They growled frighteningly as they quickly stalked the area, behind them, a swarm of lost souls bustled into the room; one pair preferring to fighting each other. The Arch-vile moved into a position in front of the control tower and threw another wall of flames hurling at the marine, along with a screaming swarm of lost souls. He jumped to the flight of stairs below him, narrowly missing the burning attack. The lost souls found themselves in the path of the Arch-viles wrath and crumbled under the heat of the intense inferno. The marine hit the landing hard and had to drag himself to his feet. Glancing down at the aliens, he saw that the arch-vile were performing strange gestures above the remains of a demon and Caco, what followed was an unthinkable sight, the alien rose its arms to the air and a bright light appeared between its hands, revealing its pale, powdery skin. The remains began to glow, blood swirled around and pooled toward it, as the flesh grotesquely stitched itself together. It levitated between the Arch-viles arms for a moment, the resurrected aliens opened their eyes and continued fighting. The whole process had a sickening soundtrack, the marines stomach turned as he watched the gruesome resurrection. He shook off the nauseating sensation, _I am not having this_, he thought to himself as he reached for his shotgun and leaped from the stairs to the floor. He smoothly got up and leveled the shotgun, unwavering. The aliens were closing in quickly, the marine smiled as he blasted the first demon. Blood, brain and bone briefly blossomed in the air, then another. A demon approached from the right, the marine turned toward it and shoved the twin barrels down its throat and squeezed the trigger, beautiful, flowering gore filled the space between its ears. The marine stepped closer, reloading smoothly, dodging the occasional stream of fire. The Arch-vile continued to resurrect, but their numbers were dwindling faster than they could work. _Boom! Click-clock-click Boom! Click-clock-click Boom! _He pointed the shotgun at an Arch-viles throat and fired both barrels, the neck was almost completely blown through, the broken, bloody flesh crawled with morbid activity as it regenerated itself. The marine reached for the chainsaw and gave it a flick, it roared to life and he finished off the arch-vile. The rest of its neck came off easily, the severed head thudded to the flood. The other Arch-vile was about a yard away, the marine stepped toward it, chainsaw purring. A lost soul screeched toward the marine, he grabbed it from the air and threw it into the Arch-viles face, it momentarily lost its focus. He unloaded the shotgun one barrel at a time, the alien staggered and held its arms out to attack again. The marine gripped his chainsaw and pressed it against the Arch-viles neck. As the blade passed through its flesh, the saw becomes briefly jammed by the monsters rapidly regenerating flesh. With the saw spinning in its throat, it held out its arms and spiraling tongues for flame materialized between its pale hands. It was preparing for a point blank fire attack. The marine looked into the bulging eyes of the alien, it was grinning devilishly. The marine twisted the chainsaw and forced it up, through its skull. Its head split; bone and brain flew through the air and blood soaked his armor. The Arch-vile's death cry resounded through the hangar as its body fell to the ground in a messy display. *_Hawwwk, Patoo*_ The marine spits into the Arch-vile's remains "This is my world", he shouts. Alien corpses were splattered along the North side of the tower, blood dripped into the many puddles on the ground from the tower and the ships. He went back to evaluating the ships nearby, demonic chunks squished under his feet. He soon found the biggest ship in the place, it stood on huge docking moors. It had front and rear scanning hardware, heat & motion seeking missiles launchers and a heavy forward plasma turret. He aimed the flashlight at the side of the ship, the spot of light streaks across the name 'Echelon'. "Beautiful", he says. He activated his armors Holo-computer and transmits his command codes to the ship. The airlock door opened and a shining staircase descends. He climbed into the ship and the repressurizing procedure began. He exited the airlock and jogged through the shining chrome corridors to the command center. His clearance opened the secure doors, he walked onto the bridge and dropped into the pilots chair. "Good afternoon, Captain." said the ship's computer. "Welcome to the Corporate Space Vessel Echelon, a ship-wide diagnostic is in progress. Reactor systems online, defense systems online, command systems online. Diagnostic has deemed that ship is fit for deployment", it said proudly. He chose the primary power setting and fired up the reactor. "Computer, activate the hangar doors", he said. "Error. Station reports a massive power outage", it replied. The marine actually forgot that the spaceport was running on rapidly evaporating emergency power. He sunk into his seat and contemplated his problem for a moment. "Huh, well I didn't want to go that way anyhow". He activated the defense systems. The shield emitters fired and the plasma coils warmed up. He targeted the center of the domed ceiling and fired. The ship's weapons erupted in a flurry of plasma blobs that slammed against the ceiling. The patch of ceiling soon became red-hot under the barrage of plasma. The Echelon's impressive weaponry made the patch of ceiling red hot and molten material began raining down, bouncing off the ship's shields. The plasma began punching holes into the patch, the marine fired the rear missile launcher. Three missiles jumped from the rear of the ship up to the weakened ceiling and exploded on impact, debris flew out in all directions. The marine smoothly piloted the ship through the opening in the ceiling and made his exit with the powerful space vessel. In the distance, the Echelon rises to the air, the engines fire and the ship tears across the sky.


	8. Chapter VIII

A quiet hum was all that could be heard of the engine from within the bridge of the Echelon. She was cruising at a Mach-five, the ship's computer estimated the time to arrival was twelve minutes. The marine was using a tiny energy emitter to give himself a badly needed shave, he swung his chair toward an adjacent terminal and studies the inventory of the ship's armory. There were pistols, machine guns, chainguns, two BFG 9000s, and an experimental battle-mech; "Wow", the marine said to himself. He had only ever seen the blueprints for these war machines, he never saw one for himself. He couldn't wait to test it out. It was eleven feet tall, heavily armored with shoulder mounted chaingun and grenade launcher, it had sharp looking wings used for flight, which also can be changed into a sword for specialized fighting mode. It was shining metal with clawed digits on the hands and feet that retracted when not needed. The marine put the Echelon on auto-pilot and abandoned the bridge for the armory. He had to get the battle-mech ready for combat. He abandons his mega armor to operate the mech.

Miles ahead, the soldiers he was assigned to rescue were under constant attack from an endless demonic battalion. Streams of plasma would fly one way, while fire, electricity and rockets flew back. The survivors had been fighting the hordes back for days and kept having to retreat because the mountains of corpses they made was constantly threatening to trap them. The surrounding landscape had deteriorated rapidly. The sky was red, trees were burnt, the dried earth had deep cracks in the ground. Suddenly the Echelon appeared in the sky, followed by a loud _BANG_. The survivors, undaunted, continued fighting. The ship maneuvered to a lower vantage. The marine, suited in the battle mech, was riding a cargo elevator to the top of the ship. Controlling the ship from the mech's computer, he moved the Echelon towards the fighting, its defense systems were set to commence firing automatically. The marine found himself looking down at the ground, vertigo was apparent in his mind. He studied the mechs targeting data, selected the largest group of aliens, then warmed up the chamber of a BFG he attached to the fixture of the discarded mini-gun. The chamber reached its maximum force potential and he let the energy bolt fly. He extended the wings of the battle mech, jumping from the surface of the Echelon, he glided toward the carnage. At that moment, the BFG bolt reached the ground and detonated, sending body parts shooting from the center of the explosion. The marine was gliding toward the ground, the commander of the survivors on the ground signaled the battle-mechs radio unit. "Sweet Jesus, its fine to see you. I don't know where you got that battle-mech but I'm just glad your here", said the commander. "All in a days work, do you have critical targets"? "My technician is sending targeting data to your ship's tactical systems". The marine studies the targets. The BFG took out a large number of the monsters but more were approaching, in greater numbers from outside the blast radius. The marine fed commands to the Echelon to target weapons on the largest group of demons. The big, beautiful ship used the zero-gee thrusters to perform a cartwheeling maneuver that swung the ship towards the demons with its plasma cannons facing out. The ships plasma cannons charged, making a loud high-pitched whine that could be heard for miles. Then, large blobs of plasma impacted against the first in a battalion of Hell Barons. They didn't know what hit them, The plasma instantly melted the Barons to soup. The ship began circling the charred blast radius of the BFG bolt, melting hundreds of monsters each moment. The battle-mech dove through the air, towards a garrison of Pain elementals and Mancubus monsters. He flew above them and pulled up, while squeezing the grenade launchers trigger. Bombs of exploding napalm scattered across the field of demons. The Mancubus exploded into burnt, stinking flabby chunks and cybernetic parts. Pain elementals melted grotesquely as the burning napalm seared their flesh. From above, the Echelon maneuvered at unthinkable angles, while blasting streams of plasma that was charged to tens of thousands of volts. Entire sections were scorched from the battlefield, while enemy fireballs and rockets deflected against the ship's shields. The battle-mech would swoop in every so often with another bombing run, while the survivors on the ground continued firing with chainguns, plasma rifles and railguns. No one had noticed it yet, but several Cyberdemons were slowly approaching the loud battle. A few streams of plasma came too close for comfort to the survivors, their commander signaled the marine for an ordinance strike on a group of Arachnotron that broke ranks to flank the survivors. The marine handled the mech's thrusters while he charged the BFG. A moment before it would have exploded, he released the mammoth blob of energy at the offending robotic spiders. As the blob of energy sailed along, the mech's targeting computer alerted the marine to five approaching targets of considerable mass. As the marine scrutinized the data, trying to identify the threat, the BFG bolt detonated, bathing the atmosphere in a green glow. The commander came over the mech's radio, "Thats a fine piece of work, soldier. If we're going to evacuate, I suggest we do it now." "Stand-by, commander", the marine replied. Squinting at the targets on his computer, he identified the approaching Cyber-demons. "Negative, Commander. My computer reports several immense aliens approaching. I'm sending you my targeting data", "Roger that, marine, standing by".

Among the deafening sounds of flying plasma and explosions, Commander Thompson studied the hovering image in the light projecting from a holographic data-disc. A group of giant Cyber-demons were marching toward them. She barely noticed the words "Oh shit", leave her lips. She and her men had seen the insides of many demons, but never the legendary Cyber-demon with her own eyes, only in intelligence reports from her scouts. The Echelon could only deal with Cyber-demons one at a time, it wouldn't take much for the other four to permanently put her out of commission, and without her, they were doomed. The Commander had a weapon that could save them, but it had never been tested. It was the Commanders last resort, the gravity vortex device. The weapon was a metallic coloured rectangle on track wheels, used for remotely moving the device into position. One its initiated, specialized liquid molecules would simulate the crushing effect of a planets gravity upon a specific location. In theory, it could reduce a skyscraper to scattered piles of its most basic molecules. It's designed to tear a target to chunks, then into bits, then tear the bits to molecules; then hopefully they'll be able to shut it down before it starts tearing apart the scorched face of the Earth.

Arachnotron and Revenant quickly emerged from piles of steaming corpses. The Commander responded over the radio, "Marine, we have a contingency plan ready for this scenario. We are deploying a dangerous untested weapon. You are advised to command the Echelon to the coordinates provided for imminent rescue procedure. Time to weapon activation is eight minutes, starting... now." The marine had been busy charging the BFG chamber when he got the rapidly spoken message. Quivering bio-energy hurled toward a frantic mob of many different aliens. From their great distance, the Cyber-demons fired their rockets toward the Echelon. The marine was already in the remote piloting program for the ship. He fired the starboard thrusters and the ship hovered to the side as three rockets sailed past it. Using the zero-gee thrusters, the ship swung in an impossible cartwheel maneuver, the ship came to a hovering stop and the plasma cannons fired. The plasma impacted a few rockets that were targeting the survivors. He then input the rescue coordinates to the auto-pilot program. He disengaged the mech's hovering thrusters and slowly, he began to fall. He swung his guns towards the the raging mob of snarling monsters and squeezed the triggers, spending as much of his reserve ammo as he could before jettisoning the weapons from their fixtures.

He was falling faster, he activated the specialized fighting mode from the mech's computer. The wings on the back of the battle mech made mechanical whining sounds and folded in on itself, it then made a wrenching sound as it twisted and made a triple bladed sword. The mech automatically grabbed the sword and a pistol from a hidden holster. The targeting controls turned around, revealing another console behind it. The monitor turned from the dull green targeting data to a wide screen of vivid colour. Just before touching down, the mech automatically burst the thrusters, hovered above the ground for a half a second before completing his descent. Gripping the control sticks, he swings the sword around, decapitating several Mancubus, he then began making wide vertical slices through Revanent and Vagery. Vagery were all around him, they gestured their hands to invoke a telepathic attack against the battle-mech. The marine could feel the strength of the psychic attack pulling against his war-machine, they were trying to pull vital components, but the structure was too strong. The marine proceeded to slice them to pieces. He ambushed groups of aliens at a time, slicing upward with divine composure; arms, blood and organs spilled through the air and coated the mech. He dashed toward another mob of monsters, firing the giant mech-pistol. The huge pistol round bored out huge cavities from the aliens, often killing two in one shot, their corpses flew backward. He tucked the sword close and charged into a group of snarling, large-jawed demons and swung the sword violently. Their demonic body parts flew through the air followed by ribbons of blood. A green blob of plasma hit the mech in it's side, he didn't notice, but the attack registered on the mechs sensors. He leaped the mech into the air, then fired the hovering thrusters and pivoted through the air toward the attack, more green plasma was sailing toward him; a battalion of Hell Barons was marching closer. He aimed the pistol for the Barons' heads and fired slowly. The heads erupted into a blossom of gore. On the other side of the battlefield, the survivors fought their way to the Echelon. The gravity vortex had five minutes to activation. Within the cozy battle-mech, progress of the weapons deployment was shown on the monitors. He activated combat-auto-pilot and began entering a series of commands to the mechs computer, then resumed the manual fighting. A warning alarm came through the computer, "Thank you for activating the self-destruct mechanism. it is recommended for your safety, that you abandon the battle-mech in six minutes". The marine continued hacking and slashing his way through the hordes of monsters as the survivors rushed to the ship for rescue. The Echelon's artificial intelligence detected the survivors and accommodated them by maneuvering toward them, lowering the access ramp and opening a patch from it's shields to admit them entry. The relieved survivors quickly ran through the gap in the energy shields and easily boarded the ship. Commander Thompson dashed straight for the bridge. Outside, the demons died in great piles, the Cyber-demons were almost in range, the secret weapon was rolling toward them. From within the bridge, the Commander consulted her holo-disc as soldiers manned the vacant stations, _only twenty seconds until the weapons activation and that crazy marine was still out there,_ she thought to herself. A large scanning terminal dominated the center of the bridge, it was a flat grid on a table that emitted the holographic scope of the scanners on the ship. Large knobs were set in the terminals control panel, used for tuning or focusing the scanners imagery. She approached the terminal and switched to the aft view, and used the knobs to focus on the marine, he was slashing the sword savagely against groups of aliens that fell in fives and tens at a time. _Whatever that kid is on, I want some_, Thompson thought to herself. The marine's destruction was a display of unbelievable intensity. One of his soldiers regarded the terminal, asked "Where on Earth did he learn to fight like that"?! "I have no idea" the commander replied.


	9. Chapter IX

The gravity weapon rolled to a stop twenty-five yards from the Cyber-demons. The weapon sprouted two metal arms and plunged them into the dried soil, anchoring itself; it then spun open, revealing thin metallic prongs surrounding knotted tubes of red liquid. The prongs began spinning around the liquid as they flexed at varying degrees, radiating energy was emitted from the prongs, used to cushion the molecular effects of the red liquid. An electronic hum was rising in intensity from the weapon. The Cyber-demons continued approaching, unaware of the trap set in their path.

The Commander lifted the Echelon into the air, targeted multiple enemies and fired the plasma cannons. The marine continued fighting the hordes of monsters, their numbers were beginning to shrink, he hacked and slashed in smooth, graceful movements. It was a savage dance of death, blood spilling freely around him. The gravity weapon spun faster and faster as the build-up of energy continued. The gravity vortex shot out from the machine in two giant ribbons of fluttering energy. The waves of energy fluctuated, the machine worked to stabilize the energy beams. The Cyber-demons were in the thick of it when the ribbons of energy became perfectly flat and reached high into the sky, it became four columns of spinning energy. Small and large objects were swept away by the vortex and instantly burst into pieces; cars, trees, boulders and small structures were sucked into the vortex and torn to shreds on impact.

The view of the vortex from the Echelon's bridge was stunning, strobing light flooded the area, small monsters were sucked from the ground and thrown helplessly into the vortex. The five Cyber-demons found themselves being drawn into the columns of energy, they fired their rockets into it but they exploded harmlessly against its surface. They split into two paths and attempted to move around the vortex. They stomped around the column but their powerful hooves began slipping under their weight as the gravity vortex pulled them closer.

The marine was still in the midst of his epic combat, corpses were in many piles and blood flooded the ground. The intensity of the battle had lowered, in the distance he saw the Cyber-demons aiming their cannons, fused to their arms, at the vortex and fired wildly. Their furious roars of frustration could be heard over the deafening strobing sound of the vortex. He activated the auto-pilot program and ejected himself from the battle-mech. The mech blew out an upper hatch and the entire control seat, terminal, controls and all flew out at an upward angle, streams of jet propelled him away from the aliens remaining on the battlefield; he gripped the control sticks and steered himself towards the Echelon. The battle-mech's programming was already running, it had dropped its weapons and began running toward the vortex.

The Cyber-demons fought against the force of the weapon, their cybernetic components were torn from their flesh, they smashed against the surface of energy and fell into thousands of tiny pieces. The monsters desperately gripped the earth, trying to back away but they continued to slide closer as metallic cybernetic parts were pulled out and streamed into the vortex. Their arm-cannons were soon stripped bare, the bolts fitted into their metal hooves began to fly out. The metal leg twisted under the giant demons weight. The survivors on board the Echelon watched as the Cyber-demons had their metal hooves stripped away. Their furious roars grew in intensity, one fell clumsily against the column and bloomed into a bloody mist. "Where did they get those cybernetic parts"? A soldier asked the commander. "The best theory I've heard is that those parts are what became of much of the UAC property that went missing during the events of the teleporter accident on Phobos", replied the stoic Commander. Soon the remaining former Cyber-demons fell over and were consumed by the spinning columns of energy. They were thrown into a putrid cloud of bloody particles, a defiant roar was cut short by sudden demolecularization. A large cloud of red demonic molecules surged above as small objects continued to fly into the vortex. Aboard the Echelon's bridge, the survivors cheered when they saw the messy demise of the once feared giants. Commander Thompson reached into her pocket and flipped her holo-disc into the air and let it land into her palm. It turned on and she selected the gravity-vortex program. "Here goes nothing", she said and initiated the program's emergency shut down command. The weapon made a high-pitched sound as the machinery tried to stop the energy beams from firing. The weapons hardware made a terrible screeching sound, exhaust pipes shot out and pumped plumes of smoke, the smoke came a little at first but was soon exploding with coloured gases. The beams of energy began fluttering wildly in all directions. A loud pop radiated from the weapon, the beams straightened and continued spinning.

"Damn it"! Shouted Thompson. "Error. Weapon malfunction has resulted in an incomplete shut-down. Please exercise emergency procedure _golf-victor-one_". A schematic of the weapon was displayed on the Commander's holo-disc, a component was flashing in red colour. The emergency energy conduit melted into the closed position. The marine had ditched the ejected command module and was running toward the Echelon and the battle-mech ran toward the gravity-vortex. The Echelon used it's zero-gee thrusters to make a fast spiraling descent toward the marine; without the mega-armor weighing him down, he ran toward her at a good pace, passing many angry aliens along the way. He leaped through the air and caught the steel stair-case of the ship's access hatch, the aliens were close behind him. He swiftly climbed up and grabbed his only grenade, he popped the cap and twisted the top. The grenade glowed green, he threw it down the access hatch. He watched the aliens amassed below the ship, the grenade sailed toward them. The ship drifted away, the aliens' attacks deflected off the ships shields. He remotely detonated the grenade when the ship was a safe distance away. A rippling burst of plasma tore through the horde as the battle-mech continued moving toward the vortex.

The marine exited the airlock and accessed a universal command console and input coordinates to the navigation system. Fire and plasma balls sizzled against the Echelon's shields as the zero-gee thrusters pivoted the mammoth ship, the ship hovered motionless for a moment and then fired its main engines, its sound from outside was apocalyptic; the Echelon sailed away from the malfunctioning gravity vortex device. The doors to the bridge split open and the marine strolled inside, wearing his mega-armor and holding his helmet at his side. His smiling face was coated in sweat. He hadn't had any social interaction since before the Phobos incident and his close encounters with the xeno-dimensional aliens stained a twisted expression on his face. Commander Thompson was inwardly taken aback by the marine's intense composure. Thompson saluted the marine, "Christ, that was some crazy fighting, never thought I'd see anything like it" The marine snickered loudly, "That war machine made things easier, it just happened to be in the ships armory" he replied. The Commander turned to the scanning terminal and adjusted the knobs, the holo-terminal focused on the image of the malfunctioning vortex. "Unfortunately, we failed to shut-down the gravity-vortex device". The marine stepped toward the terminal and compared its data with the data on his armor's holo-computer. "The mech is set to self-destruct, the reserve of BFG ammo should give us enough punch to take it down" said the marine. On the monitor, the battle-mech came running into the scope of the scanners, moving toward the weapon. The advanced structure of the mech withstood the extreme forces of the vortex. The marine remotely detonated the mech just before it would have impacted the energy column. The explosion filled the view of the scanning terminal and briefly jammed the sensors with its bright illumination. When the static cleared, it was revealed that the vortex was gone.

The crew put it upon themselves to rescue three other groups of survivors. The marine used the ships advanced scanners to determine where the center of demonic activity was occurring. Strangely, the most activity was coming from an area that the marine had frequented regularly before being transferred to the Phobos base. Further scans revealed a very large portal operating in the area. Because of the heavy infestation in the area the crew had to drop the marine several miles from the location. The Echelon's crew made two more rescues, they then took the ship high into the sky, beyond the atmosphere and set her into orbit.


	10. Chapter X

The Moon colony sat in a large crater below a black starry sky, sunlight beamed against a large black monolith. UAC headquarters. The large, black building had long, wide slits in its surface that served as windows, the UAC logo was lightly etched against the surface of the building. Dr. Kronos rode the monorail, it was surrounded in a tunnel of metal supporting frames that housed shielding emitters, used to give the monorail its own breathable atmosphere. A set of doors opened as the car approached the building, he got out at a small platform and walked through a featureless door that was as black as the walls that housed it. The car continued along to a circuit station. Kronos took the elevator to the 22nd floor, it took him directly to the conference room. The other members of the meeting had also just arrived, they each stepped in from the corners of the room and simultaneously walked toward the brightly lit doughnut shaped table, situated in the center of the room. The central chair swirled around, revealing Administrator Dr Rupert Nexson, who stood and regarded his colleagues. They silently took their seats. The meeting was attended by Dr. Kronos, UAC's highest authority on the portal phenomenon; Dr. Barrows, the head geologist; Dr. Clyde, highest authority on xenobiology (aliens); and Master Corporal Revok, head of strategic planning. Nexson regarded Kronos, "What is your report?" he demanded. "Success, containment field shows great promise. I endorse the advancement to level six testing." was Kronos' prompt reply. "Hmmmm, this may be the last experiment using the BSK serum that we can attempt for some time, make sure your people stay sharp. If you botch this experiment, I will personally shoot you into the heart of space without a thruster module." said Nexson. "The experiment will be executed with the greatest precision, sir", "See to it". Nexson continued, "Well, I'm sure your all interested in what happened to research lab Delta. Dr. White somehow managed a portal accident during a routine transfer of test subjects, and it looks very much like it will be destroyed. Kronos, you will be assuming Dr White's duties, medium-priority." Kronos silently accepted the assignment. "Barrows, I understand you have something you want to report.", "Yes, sir. I think we may have found another source of influence for the aliens." The doctor tapped his data-sheet and a holographic image of the scorched Earth appeared in the center of the conference table. A portion of the Earth glowed in red, illustrating a particularly badly infected area. "This area began showing some very strange bio readings, so I conducted another analysis and found this mysterious structure", the image zoomed in closer and focused on a red bulge that seemed to breath up and down. "I think this structure should be considered a primary military target... Although I have to admit that I have only a limited understanding of what it is, I gave these findings to Dr. Clyde for review. Do you have anything to add, doctor?", said Barrows. Clyde had a short beard and was smoking a pipe. "Yes I do.", Dr. Clyde replied, "After a thorough scan of the anomaly, I believe were looking at a unique life form, its unknown where its organs or its higher intelligence centers are located. It is theorized this growth is the result of psychic meditations of an extremely advanced being, likely located in an adjacent dimension. If you intend to destroy it... most conventional means will likely suffice." He said, thoughtfully gesturing his pipe. Corporal Revok cleared his throat, "I really doubt that nuking that blob will make any difference, the resources it would take to strike that target would likely be put to better purposes if the situation becomes more volatile.", he said. "What is the situation with the xeno-missions?", asked Nexson, regarding Revok. The Corporal shot up in his seat, "The situation is the same, I can't communicate with those who have passed through the portals and the hardware from your precious Alpha labs have never survived any longer than four minutes during field tests. Deaf and blind, thats our situation." A silent moment passed as the Corporal and the Administrator exchanged loaded glares. The Corporal stabbed at his data-sheet, an unfinished map appeared in the center of the table. "This is all the scouting we've been able to do of this damned dimension, we still have entire continents that have to be explored before we can find the remaining spider-minds. I can't endorse another deployment under these circumstances, were running out of men and you know very well that soon enough, we will be deploying our own families through those portals." Behind Nexson, in the window, research lab delta exploded, sending debris mushrooming into the air. Nexson looked irritated by the sudden loss, then composed himself to respond to Revok, "I'm aware of this, Corporal. The deployments will continue, we can't afford to lose the only foothold we have in the alien world.". The Corporal's eyes burned with rage, as brightly as those of a Hell Knight. "Alpha labs had better deliver and fast...or we will all pay the consequences" Said Revok. "Do you have any idea how much-" a tone sounded, cutting off their heated discussion. Nexson slapped a button and a dull hologram appeared, its light buzzing quietly. "What?" snapped Nexson. "Sorry for the interruption, sir. I think you would want to be informed that a corporate vessel has just come on sensors." Nexson suddenly looked very pleased, "Really? What sensor unit are you monitoring it on?" he asked. "A-42" the hologram responded. He rang up a visual of the vessel on his terminal, the image appeared in the center of the table. "Now where did this beauty come from?."

Commander Thompson was jogging to the bridge of the Echelon, the pilot had something for her to see. She stepped onto the bridge and asked what was going on. "Take a look at this" he gestured toward the scanning-terminal, the Earth's moon slowly turned in the holographic light. It didn't take long for her to see that there was some some sleek looking buildings on the surface. "It caught my attention when something on the surface exploded, look at the etchings on the largest building." said the pilot. The Commander gripped the tuning knobs and focused on the big black building, the syllables fell from her lips. "UAC" she said, stunned. "This must have been some emergency plan of theirs, I certainly never knew this was here" she said. A green light began blinking on a console to the right. "We're being hailed" the pilot said. "It looks like they see us, too" She hoped for a friendly response and opened the channel, "Attention, pirates," came an emotionless voice from the speakers, "you are in unlawful possession of UAC property. Surrender the Echelon peacefully and immediately." Thompson slapped the communications panel. "This is Commander Thompson, we are not pirates, we had no idea you were operating out here, or at all for that matter." "Irrelevant" came the cold reply. "In case you didn't notice, we just came out of a hellish war zone, we have a lot of wounded on board that are being accommodated by the medical bay." pleaded the commander. "Stand-by" came the response. "Typical UAC", The Commander fumed "They think they own the whole galaxy."

On the holo-monitor six small ships leaped from the moon and charged toward the Echelon. "Oh, hell!" Cried Thompson, she quickly slipped into the command station and brought the weapons system online. The plasma turret warmed up and the missiles were loaded under automation. "I have a lock", said the pilot. "Missiles away." The missiles flew from the rear and turned toward the incoming ships. The fighters shot two of the missiles, the third struck and destroyed a fighter, shrapnel from its hull impacted the shields of the Echelon and bounced away. "Engage attack speed and pull hard to port" called the Commander, the ship pivoted toward one of the fighters. She wrapped her hands around the turret controls and fired blobs of plasma, the small, fast ships easily steer around her shots. The Echelons shields were put to the test, the fighters swooped in and fired. The Echelon limped away, the fighters were too fast for the huge vessel. "Missiles away." Thompson shouted, the missile's lock chased a fighter, Thompson fired the turrets at them from the other direction. Plasma erupted the hull and the missiles caused the small ship to explode. _Damn, that felt good, _Thompson thought to herself. Four fighters left. The ship continued spraying plasma, the fighters dove and swooped around it. Two of the attacking ships came around and attacked the Echelons plasma turret. The shield sputtered and the following volley caused the weapon to rupture brilliantly, the debris floated away from the ship. They fired another group of missiles, the remaining fighters destroyed them with a flourish. Other fighters positioned themselves along each side of the Echelon. "Attention pirates, we have identified your command center, surrender or be destroyed" came a firm voice from the ships speakers. Thompson slapped the control for the ship-wide intercom. "Attention, all hands. We are about to be boarded by UAC personnel, do not resist." Thompson tweaked the comm channel to close and opened the one to the UAC. "Echelon to UAC, we surrender. State your terms." she said. "Put all weapon systems offline and open all space dock doors."


	11. Chapter XI

On the scorched Earth below, the marine makes his way through armies of aliens to slowly make his way to their stronghold. Along his way were mountains of stinking, maggot infested corpses of humans, aliens and animals. The closer he got, the more of the grotesque growths he encountered. He also came across many small, green portals, humming and hovering above the ground, occasionally spitting out angry aliens. When his timing was right, he could throw them right back through with the force of the shotgun. His armor's computer chirped, he received a message from Commander Thompson. "Marine, this is Commander Thomson, when we were in orbit we discovered a UAC colony on the Earth's moon. They discovered us and neutralized the Echelon. We are now being boarded by UAC personnel. Be advised, Thompson out." The image melted away, the marine was rather surprised by this bit of news. _So the UAC is still operating, how quaint, they've conveniently survived their own undoing, while exterminating ninety-nine percent of their own species. I really hope they're finished with portal technology, who knows what another accident could do._ He still had a long way to go and the area was badly infected. He cautiously continued along his way.

Dr. Kronos stepped through the doors to the lab, "Greetings, Doctor. What is our current status?" he asks. Campbell swirled his chair around to look toward Kronos, "Acidic levels are adequate, simulation is stable, and Dr. Mason is adjusting the containment field emitters, but all other hardware is functioning normally." Kronos walked over to his terminal and touched a symbol. "Dr. Mason, return to the lab as soon as you are finished," holding the channel open, he turned to regard Campbell, "We are advancing to level six testing, understood?" Both Mason and Campbell acknowledged in unison. "Good". He closed the channel and said to Campbell, "Monitor subject number Victor-India-fifty-three, we begin experimenting at 1900."

Outside the lab, on the face of the moon, UAC marines stood in formation as the survivors from the Echelon were escorted at gunpoint from the ship, into a large monorail car. The marines were in sealed environment suits, wielding plasma rifles and BFGs. Commander Thompson led a single-file line of the survivors. "Keep moving Thompson, we don't want any accidents", one of the marines taunted. The Commander hardly needed to be told how hopeless the situation was, she kept her eyes ahead and marched along. From the windows of the UAC HQ, Administrator Nexson and Master Corporal Revok watched the long line of survivors move toward the monorail station. "Well Corporal, it seems we have some new volunteers for the portal mission", said Nexson. The Corporal regarded the Administrator with a wicked smile.

Dr. Mason strode into the lab, "The field emitters should be three-point-two percent more efficient", he said. "Good work, Doctor. Both myself and the Administrator are deeply impressed with your work". Mason was surprised by the sudden compliment, "High praise", commented Campbell. "It certainly is", said Kronos, studying his terminal. "We are going to experiment on a subject that has been injected with the BSK serum, and is now being extracted from the simulation" he said. Kronos' monitor glowed with images from within the simulation. Campbell leaned close to Kronos and inquired quietly, "I didn't realize we were still testing the BSK serum." Kronos responded loudly "The serum may be in extremely short supply, but its shelf-life is not indefinite, it must be tested now if it is to be tested at all." Kronos continued to watch the feed from the simulation in eerie silence as Mason and Campbell exchanged concerned looks. The marine in the simulation turned down a hallway and came to the door of the hangar-bay. He cleared the security check and the massive door raised upward. The capsule ascended from the test chamber's floor and split apart, revealing the test marines' white reflective armor. Cables attached to the armor retracted into the floor with the capsule, the opening in the floor quickly closed again. Campbell was monitoring the simulation and the marines' vitals. "Simulation will fade and terminate in twenty seconds", he said. Dr. Campbell frowned at the energy levels of his monitor, "Energy levels are fluctuating, the extraction may be rather... bumpy", he said. Kornos watched him sharply for any sign of human error, Campbell was clearly handling the equipment properly. "I'm sure he noticed that, but its hardly any reason to abort", Campbell commented; Kronos stood behind his terminal, the monitors light flooding the Doctors small glasses. "Yes, I would agree" he said. Another moment passed silently, the test-marine stood motionless. Then Mason said "Simulation is now terminated". The marine left the simulation with a jolt and found himself disorientated. He shot his head around, scanning the replica. Kronos watched as the marine began to step through the experimentation chamber. "This is likely to be an intense procedure, so stand-by on emergency counter-measure systems." Campbell and Mason silently acknowledged. Kronos stood above his terminal and said, "I will handle the gateway sequences for this experiment." He ran a few tests and then commanded the system to run a level one gateway. The marine marched toward the security locker as demonic whispering echoed through the area. Portals were beginning to form. Somehow from the start of the extraction he had the impression of the test and its danger. In a flourish he opened the locker and grabbed the plasma rifle and the magazines, quickly spun around and fired. Hissing, clawing Imps were burnt through. More monsters appeared from the green energy only to be burnt to ash on arrival. From the observation room, they watched the marine dart through the area, aggressively attacking the aliens that randomly appeared throughout the area. "I am reducing the area and moving to level two in five seconds", commented Kronos. The other researchers were silently glued to their stations. The marine was standing in the center of the area when the large-jawed demons appeared, large sections of wall slammed to the floor, making the arena smaller. The marine fired from side to side, the demons were turned to smoldering chunks and ash. The marine swung around and kicked a demon in it's temple, nanotechnology on the surface of the marines boot registered the lethal use of force and restructured its shape to apply greater damage to the blow. The demons head exploded, raining blood and brain. The marine was already focused on blasting another wave as the demon continued working its jaw, splashing blood from the remains of its head. Kronos silently moved to level three.

The marine dashed from place to place, firing wildly; the portals appeared with greater frequency. Horned, red-skinned demons appeared, charging angrily. The area became noticeably smoky after the marine blasted them with plasma. Firing blindly into the smoke, he still managed to bag the monsters. When a Mancubus appeared, he tore its thermal cannon from the cybernetic fixture, the alien screamed as it splashed blood from its torn arm. He lifted the flamethrower and shot fire throughout the area. Fire burned on spots on the floor and the monsters that were hit were running wildly, providing adequate illumination. He dropped the thermal canon and continued firing the plasma. The fight intensified. The plasma flew freely, the burnt chunks of alien crunched loudly under the marines' boots. Revenant and Hell barons appeared in place of the demons. The marine was sent diving out of the way of their attacks. He fired back a long stream of plasma, then fired the last of the energy cell in a burst in a Cacodemons mouth. He reloaded the plasma rifle as a Hell Baron stomped toward him, he fired another burst of plasma at its head, its face became a melted mess, but the monster was barely slowed down, he rolled out of its reach and fired another long stream, several aliens cried out in demonic tongue as they fell to chunks. After killing a couple more Cacodemons, the area was swamped in smoke from burning aliens with plasma.

Dr. Kronos moved the experiment to level five and activated the infrared holography imaging mode to see through the smoke. The portals were opening in rapid-fire around the marine. The marines' attacks, fueled by the BSK serum and the mega-armors nanotech surface made brutal work of the aliens. The marine kicked heads flying while firing plasma, his punches shattered the chests of his foes; all the while portals would continue opening, blood from the fallen beasts streaked through the air and bounced back and forth against the portal energy. The marines' attacks became even faster, he ditched the gun and began dealing devastating blows to the aliens.

Kronos moved from level five to the maximum, level seven. "Final sequence", he said. The marine caused a Hell Knight's head to explode with three punches, demons were sent flying above the heads of its brethren before slamming into them. The marines' attacks became faster and more efficient before the unending army of defiant aliens. From the control room, the marines' movements were too fast to be studied, the researchers had to rely on playing back the video of the experiment on slower playing speeds. The marines' eyes were suddenly a shade of burning white. He thrust his hands out and an energy shockwave shot out, flooring several Hell knight. The marines mind was exploding with adrenaline as he ripped apart the aliens and hurled their remains at the others. A veil was lifted from before the marines' eyes and a thought of great intensity touched his mind. Energy shot through him. The aliens were thrown to the walls and into each other, against a burst of energy that moved through the marine, accompanied by a mysterious humming sound.

"Scanners are running fine, sir," Mason called to Kronos, who was at the window, openly fixated on the awesome sight. Throbbing energy was surging away from the marine in greater and greater force until a blanket of energy appeared behind the marine, it looked like a disembodied mouth filled with stars, it stretched and enveloped the marine. The dazzling portal then swirled out of existence and vanished in a loud thunderous tone. The tone died down and the demons began to surge through the area again. Kronos turned away from the window, he was clearly shaken up from what he saw, an extremely rare occurrence. "Mason?" he asked. "All sensor logs are intact, sir" he replied softly. "Good, lets get this mess cleaned up" he said. Using his terminal to label the report as urgent and sent all the data to administration. The team of researchers went to work on what would be an extremely long incident report.


	12. Chapter XII

The marine fell through the portal, spinning head over foot through ribbons of throbbing energy. He fell through an alien sky, toward an unknown world, a large circle was below. An invisible force oriented him and guided him gently to the ground in the center of the circle, Hell Knights and Cyber-demons could be seen in the area beyond. Looking around, he found himself in the center of a circle of tightly assembled slabs of stone, energy from the portal continued to radiate upon him from above. He looked at the ground, ancient bones protruded from the dry, dusty ground, eyeless skulls looked up at him, spewing a steam-like gas from below the ground. It was a hellish stonehenge that rose five stories high.

The marine walked out to explore the area, but found he was being pushed back by some force. A breeze swept through his mind, a thousand voices called out to him. The voices were animalistic, but seemed to imply a query. "Why were we summoned?", the voices asked. The voices plucked the answers from him mind. The voices commanded a louder tone, "You have violated our sacred conduit", The screaming voices implied. The marine could feel the presence moving through him, Cyber-demons began to slowly stomp around the outside of the structure, watching the marine with eyes of pure hatred. "You are much like the other," the voices said in a slithering voice, making the marines skin crawl. "Hells Icon will consume you both", said the voices clearly. "Baphomet". The name echoed through the area. Before his eyes, the hellish dimension began to fade, and the Earthly realm appeared between the clouds of shifting atmosphere. The marine reached toward it , he stumbled and bumped his way through the rift. He stood in the center of a free-way, lined with crashed hover-cars. The imagery of destruction shocked the test-marine, being trapped in a computer simulation for so many weeks, he had no idea that the demonic invasion had occurred. He rationalized that whatever he had been fighting on that Phobos hangar seemed to have made the Earth it's new home at some point. _How many of my people have perished? Surely, Earth's forces can't fight like he did on the hangar, moments ago—Wait a minute, what happened on the hangar? How did I-? _Explosions in the distance brought him back from his troubling thoughts. A very strange structure was in that direction, _likely a stronghold for these monsters_. It looked like someone was fighting in that direction, he made his way toward the sounds of explosions. As he trekked along, he soon saw some moving, green light, followed by a sound of imploding energy. Whoever was in that direction was using a BFG 9000, _whoever this person is, they're my new best friend, _he thought to himself as he quickened his pace.

A few kilometers away, the other marine fought onward. Despite his enhancements from the mega-armor and a previous injection of the BSK serum while on Phobos, he was getting fatigued. The constant onslaught of demonic invaders was unrelenting. His nano-enhanced chainsaw was slicing through several imps at a time, stinking carcasses trailed behind him. He pushed the saw against a demon's head, a large slice of its scalp fell away, blood splashed freely. He spotted an Arch-vile, he heaved his thermal cannon and charged toward it. The Arch-vile shot a stream of fire after him, he ducked behind a car. He stood, aimed the cannon and a jet of fire soaked the Arch-vile in flames. The alien made a hideous roar in defiance and threw another volley of his own fire. The marine dodges and ran toward the alien. The burning monster raised it's clawed hand, poised to strike. The marine jerked the chainsaw, the blade flipped out and came to life. He cut off the offending arm and then thrust the saw through its chest and pulled it upward, the blade exited through the top of the aliens skull, exposing steaming organs and splattering blood and brain. He heard the growls of the demons approaching him, he kept his chainsaw at the ready as he continued along. He soon came across a mob of Lost souls, a few shells from the shotgun shattered them to pieces. More of the flying skull monsters accompanied by Cacodemons and Pain elementals attacked. The grotesque floating orbs were moving in a 'vee' formation. The marine gripped his shotgun and more lost souls fell to the ground in pieces. He was in the process of stashing the shotgun in favor of the rocket launcher, when an explosion ruptured against the side of one of the Cacodemons, cratering that side of its bloated body, exposing mysterious organs. It fell to the ground with a splash of blue blood. _Who could that have been? Surely the Echelon didn't return,_ he thought to himself.  
Shrugging, he turned his sights on a pain elemental and let the rockets fly; he was hardly in a position to turn down the help. Lost souls flew toward him and were shattered against his bare fists, one of them was kicked hard enough to send it high into the sky. He continued firing rockets at the remaining aliens accompanied by the efforts of the marine from the test chamber. He was firing a grenade launcher he got recently from a former human whom he promptly disarmed, literally, the test-marine ripped the weapon and arm from its body. The bloated, floating freaks burst wildly under both the marines co-ordinated attacks, sending chunks and blood flying. They kept their distance and silently traveled to the demonic structure that was growing larger in the distance. They passed by scenes of destruction, buildings were reduced to rubble, impaled and burnt bodies of the marines' countrymen scattered the city, and they had to climb around the rubble of an intersection that collapsed into the sewer tunnels below. Oh—and it smells like rotting shit, luckily the helmets of the mega armor filtered out the odor. Soon, they heard a low rumble coming from South-West. They moved toward the sound and, using the advanced functions of the mega-armors visor to scope out the source of the sound, they could make out an army of Hell Knights moving to intercept them.

"Get psyched" said the Phobos marine. They took their positions and fired at the aliens. The projectiles traveled two hundred meters before exploding against the targets, leaving a small crater surrounded by blood, parts and organs. The platoon of Hell Knights changed their direction slightly and moved toward the marines, while throwing balls of burning plasma. They were covering behind a partially destroyed wall. The blobs of plasma sizzled against the bricks. The test-marine lobbed grenades over the wall, while the other blindly fired plasma from the corner. The grenades killed off pockets of the platoon, the plasma slapped against the facing side. The Phobos-marine gripped his BFG and broke for more cover near-by. He then dashed closer to the aliens and took cover behind a toppled bus. The BFG was charging when he jumped onto it. The ball of sparkling energy flew through a pocket in the aliens' formation. The resulting explosion decimated the surrounding Hell Knights, those that were closest to the explosion were totally and partially disintegrated. The test-marines' grenades provided support, the Phobos-marine jumped down and unleashed his thermal-cannon, defiant Hell Knight roared and threw plasma. _Crack-boom. _The test-marines' grenades cut their frustrations short.

A horrible choir of sounds went through the air. Arch-vile emerged from the collapsing platoon, they immediately began using their mysterious abilities to resurrect the fallen hell knights, while others sprayed fire back at the marines. The Arch-vile raised their arms above the pathetic remains of the charred aliens, the remaining Hell-Knights advanced on the marines. Light glowed brightly between the Arch-viles powdery, pale hands, chunks of burnt flesh began to bounce and roll toward them, ashy remains twirled through intricate swarms. The chunks and ash flared red brightly, it soon resembles churning flesh. An unimaginable sight of bubbling and stretching flesh quickly took the form of the alien, reborn. The sight caused the test-marine to lift off his helmet and vomit, loudly. The other marine shrugged, its not the kind of thing one would ever expect to see. He fired another BFG round, the green blob sailed toward the Arch-vile, but was intercepted by a Hell Knight and detonated prematurely; the Arch-vile stood unharmed and attacking. The Phobos marine jumped out of the way just before fire engulfed the area.

The Arch-vile approached the recently fallen and resurrected them quickly, the Hell Knights sprang to life, tossing plasma. The scream of a chaingun sounded, lightning fast gunfire tore across the battlefield. The test marine emerged with fire in his eyes, the chambers on his gun turned wildly, another gift from the former humans. The Phobos-marine gripped his shotgun and advanced on the dwindling horde, he rolled to evade plasma, then took aim at a Knight's head. He fired, reloaded and fired again, the aliens skull blew apart, revealing its green brain. He then took to punching craters into the chests of the Knights, the gunfire drew the attention of the aliens. He drew close to an Arch-vile and unloaded his plasma rifle in multiple bursts at it's head, which promptly turned to ash. The Hell Knight fell defeated, revealing the remaining Arch-vile, running madly. They were caught in the crossfire of plasma and bullets, they were soon wiped from existence. The victorious marines stood before the smoldering remains of thousands of aliens. The alien structure lay closer than ever, they wasted no time.


	13. Chapter XIII

From there, they only met some light resistance, soon they made it to the structure. It was a writhing blob of orange-red flesh, the discoloration of veins protruded lightly from below its surface, surrounding it was a moat of bubbling blood (or what looked like it), a bloated, sharp-toothed creature occasionally broke the surface. The UAC researchers on the moon were scanning the shit out of it. A giant tongue served as a bridge leading to the only entrance. As they crossed over, their boots made a sucking, squishing sound. They turned on their armors flashlight and entered the structure. The inside has coiled, fleshy walls that dripped with slime, steam rose up from the ground. They stepped inside and the light from the entrance soon disappeared, in the distance they heard what sounded like very loud stomach rumbles. The passages pulsated in an organic fashion, many were very narrow, the marines moved through it without any idea what would lie ahead, the fleshy walls would stick together and they would have to nudge it to move through. They came to an empty medium sized chamber, they were cautiously making their way to the other side when they were attacked by appendages that leaped from the floor in the center of the room, they latched themselves onto their armor and pulled them down, digestive acids surged from orifices in the floor and caused lethal amounts of toxic humidity. The test-marine turned toward the tentacles and fired his chaingun into the flesh covered floor, the appendages snapped off and they made their way into the next passage. They slowly moved along, yanking the tentacles from their armor. _Mega-armor saves my ass again,_ thought the Phobos-marine.

They moved through the fleshy passage and heard a buzzing sound ahead, it got louder as they approached the next chamber. They pushed through another folded passage, it peeled back, stretching a of web viscus fluid against the surface of moving flesh. It opened revealing a slightly smaller chamber, buzzing with swarms of Cherub, a disturbing fusion of infant humans and alien genetics. Neither of the marines had seen these before. They were floating clumsily through the air and crawling through small passages high up in the walls. The Cherub swooped toward them, screeching and buzzing with its claws extended. They took aim with the shotgun and pistol and fired, the abominations turned to dripping pieces. More of the freaks swarmed into the room. The test marine emptied the pistol's magazine, taking down several of the small creatures. The monsters attacked but were unable to overcome their superior firepower and splattered against the walls.

They made their way through another passage before coming to a very large chamber, the strange growth seems to have grown over a modern community center. Some of the original features remained but the building was being consumed. Walking slowly, they carefully check for the threat but all was quiet, save for the sound of slime dripping from the ceiling. They then heard a slithering, sucking sound coming from above. A large creature had crawled from an orifice in the fleshy ceiling. Its huge and shadowy body streaked across the walls. The marines raised their weapons and fired the plasma and grenades, but the monster was too fast for them to hit, it darted to a far corner and stared at them with a hundred red eyes. The sight of its eyes confirmed their belief that this was Baphomet, the icon of sin. It was all black and moved on four legs that ended in webbed feet that provides suction for moving along steep angles. It also had a large tail, sharp fangs and claws. The test marine dropped his grenade launcher and lifted his chaingun, firing quickly. The line of bullets streaked across the walls, the shadowy creature shot yellow energy, causing the Phobos-marine to dive out of its way, while the creature continued to evade.

The creature roared when it was struck by the gunfire. The Phobos-marine got to his feet and fired rockets. The creature jumped from the wall to the ground and knocked down the Test-marine with its tail, then shot another bolt of yellow energy, the other marine had to dive for cover, he found that his armor was partially charred. The creature had leaped back onto the wall and appeared to be regenerating its wounded flesh with its piercing eyes locked onto its prey. They fired again, but the creature had leaped toward the Phobos-marine and grasped him in its teeth. The marine responded by shooting rockets down its throat, while the Test-marine pelted it with gunfire from close range, he was soon swatted like a bug by the huge alien. A series of explosions sounded from within the creature, it spat out the Phobos-marine, his armor was crumpled and dripping with vile mucus, while the other marine was recovering from being thrown against a column. The Phobos-marine wiped the slime from his rocket launcher and struggled to replace the magazine. _Ka-boom!_ The alien was facing the chewed marine when the side of its head erupted. Roaring, it moved toward the attack, whipping his tail toward the Phobos-marine, forcing him to roll out of the way. The alien was greeted with another explosive to the face, it made a disturbing series of fast clicking sounds as he winced in pain and then clawed at the Test-marine, its claws seemed to morph themselves at its will. He went dashing to the side, one sight of those growing claws got him moving for better cover. The alien stomped around and fired another ball of energy, black blood leaked from it's mouth. The Phobos-marine fired rockets that hit its side, it turned and threw more energy. The Test-marine had climbed to a second floor landing and aimed the chaingun at the creatures temple and fired. The creature cried out in the strange clicking sound, the rockets finally fell the beast, it scraped at the ground, trying to regain it's footing but was kept down by the chainguns gunfire. The Phobos-marine gripped his BFG 9000 and aimed at its huge head and fired, it made a large crater in the side of its giant skull, black blood oozed freely from the gaping wound. The Icon lay defeated and the building rumbled, the mysterious growth slithered away from the building, causing some of it to collapse. They easily walked out of the building to find that the growth had disappeared, leaving behind a gross, bloody residue. The marines made their way down a path of slippery stairs, away from the slimed, dripping community center.

They walked for some time until a strange zipping sound caused them to turn back. The growth that had enveloped the community center was shooting up to the sky in small columns. Red matter could be seen from far away, converging above them. Dread gnawed away at them as they looked at each other with worried eyes, then up at the sky. A small blob was forming in the sky, it got larger as more of the red substance shot toward it. "I think we should move", "Yeah", they said to each other. They ran along a stone path in a connecting public park that was thoroughly charred. The red blob had grown large enough to take up a large part of the sky above them. The substance stopped shooting up to it and the mass took the form of a large, circular cloud with an empty space in the center, it churned with many shades of blood-red. The anomaly was scanned meticulously from the moon colony, the sight of the blood-red wormhole against the charred Earth was unbelievable, even for the objective UAC researchers. The wormhole seemed to focus and follow the two marines, they ran for any escape that they could find. The wormhole swirled with fast intensity and the marines were sucked from the Earth, along with lots of debris, into the angry storm. They had no time to think or act as they were dragged into the churning maw of hell. The UAC sensor equipment recorded the whole event, they watched helplessly as the greatest fighters mankind may ever know, were again swept into the unknown. Although most of the alien activity on the face of the Earth had been neutralized, the mysterious, bloody wormhole continues to churn in the skies above the Earth.


	14. Special Thanks

My sincere thanks to:

Mom & Dad

Andreas

Paul

Steve

Kate

Brian

Bryan

The many people whose names are lost to the void of time, who supported the idea

Tim Horton's workers (for tolerating my presence while I wrote this)

ID Software (John Carmack & John Romero)

The online DOOM community

Universal Studios (for making the DOOM movie)

PlanetDOOM (RIP)

Sarge, maker of the modern 'Brutal DOOM' mod

Everyone who works to make DOOM a better game by making new material


End file.
